Unspoken Rule
by Yukina zero
Summary: In an alternate universe where Jason Todd finishes his training with the League of Assassins and simply returns home, Damian asks him why he has never confronted Bruce on the matters surrounding his death. Or: Jason and Daimion have a heart to heart, and I fail miserably in an attempt to write angst.


Jason is sitting in his favorite armchair inside the Wayne Manor Library when he hears the angry sound of stomping feet steadily getting louder. He doesn't look up from the book in his hands when he feels the source of the sound fling himself on the opposite couch with a growl. He doesn't have to anyway. There is only one other person in the manor beside himself that would come to this room to blow off steam.

He doesn't know what's got him so irritated this time but, with the way things have been between him and Bruce lately he could take a wild guess.

"Father is being a tenacious asshole again." Says Daimion, with a scowl in his voice.

Wow, did Daimion just use the word asshole? Jason really has been a bad influence on him. It's either that or he is finally experiencing the full effects of puberty at the tender age of 13. With the newly acquired title of teenager Daimion has taken to following all of his predecessors examples by rebelling against Bruce and his ideologies at every turn.

Even when he can feel the intense gaze of the other settle on him waiting for an speak, he pointedly turns the page and continues to ignore him. Maybe if he gets annoyed enough he'll go away to be someone else's problem?

A moment of stretched out silence passes over them as the younger boy continues to stare at him and, Jason does not stop reading until finally he speaks up again with a question that seems to startle them both.

"Why have you never condemned him for doing nothing?" Jason's head snaps up in shocked confusion and Daimion looks like he didn't mean to say that question out loud.

"What do you mean?" He asks in a cautiously neutral tone, even though he feels like he knows exactly what he's talking about. Dread starts to pool in his stomach, he knows exactly where this conversation is going to lead.

Daimion never one to back down after having said something clarifies " Why have you never raged at him for not avenging your death? In the League of Assassins if someone's comrades or family members are killed it is customary to seek justice for their deaths. Yet father did nothing to that hideous abomination responsible for your death except throw it back in prison. Again."

Jason winced at the blunt statement, but couldn't fault him for it, after all he wouldn't know the true implications of what he just said. With that in mind he realized that _he_ would have to be the one to explain this to Damion, and resigned himself to his fate. In all honesty he was surprised it took him this long to ask when usually Damion does not shy away from uncomfortable questions.

"Right, you weren't raised in Gotham, so I guess you wouldn't know." He waves his hand flippitantly, with a humorless laugh.

"What?" Daimion half questions, and half demands

"Its kind of like an unspoken rule in this city"

He raises an eyebrow seeming to catch on to the fact that Jason was stalling.

He swallows and finally says " There's a saying that every child in this city but, especially the ones raised on the streets are taught."

"Blood is thicker than Ink."

"And this means…?"

"That family is more important than the Law"

"That seems a bit excessive for an entire city."

"Yes, well what do you expect with the strongest force of power here being the mob? Everyones connected to or is a criminal at this point."

"I see"

Daimion leans back into the couch, and his expression twists. Jason already knows what he's going to ask before his mouth even opens.

"I don't understand if there really is such a rule here than shouldn't you be even more furious at father for not seeking vengeance."

"There's also a second, double meaning to the rule. No one says it out loud but it's heavily implied." Jason fights on with a stony expression.

Daimion in a rare moment of patience, waits for him to finish.

"If you don't get justice for a person after they are killed, it a show of publicly disowning and degrading someone."

"But father has a 'no killing' code, surly no one would think he disinherited you or did not uphold your honor!" Daimion literally jumps to his parents defence.

Jason shakes his head with the same stony expression. "In the eyes of Gotham and it's citizens the second robin was never apart of the batclan. Most people also had a lot of questions about the death of Jason Todd-Wanye when Bruce Wayne didn't immediately call for the Jokers head on a pike."

Daimion sits back down looking like he just had a revelation. He sounds also most scared when he asks "What does this have to do with you never out right saying challenging father?"

Jason huffs " I do have some pride you know. Bruce basically disinherited me and I wasn't going to go sulking back where I wasn't wanted. Originally I was going to settle down in Crime Ally or something, but then Talia asked me to take you back to Bruce and, I couldn't refuse when I owed her for saving my life. Than as soon as I saw Bruce again he was all shoulder pats and "I'm glad your back Jay-Lad" as if nothing even happened"

He looks the teen right in the eyes as he says " I guess that's when I realized what Bruce had been trying to tell me all along. I was thinking of him as a father, but he never thought of me as a son. I was only a soldier to him."

Daimion looks like he wanted to protest but let's him continue. "Even if I was devastated at the time, I knew what I had to do. After all Bruce had taken me under his roof, feed me, and clothed me for years. Without anywhere else to go, being agreeable was the least I could do to show my gratitude."

For a bit Jason worried that he had broken the poor boy's world with how shocked he looked at his father's actions of abandonment. It was no secret after all that Daimion looked up to his father a great deal.

"Next time."

Jason made a confused face at Daimion's words

"Next time I promise that I'll avenge you" He states with a look far to mature for his age. Jason feels his eyes widen before a goofy smile spreads across his face.

"I don't know how I feel about you implying that I'm going to die first but-"

Jason reaches across and clasps their hands together as Daimion scoffed.

"I would do the same for you brother."


End file.
